Russia’s upper house of Parliament, the Federation Council has ratified an agreement to establish the $100 billion foreign currency reserve pool for the BRICS group. It is intended to protect national currencies from volatility in global markets.

The currency pool will primarily support the balance of payments of the BRICS member states, according to the deputy head of the Federal Council Committee for Budget and Financial Markets Sergey Ivanov.

“Realization of the agreement will also contribute to the effective protection of the national currencies against the volatility in the world currency markets,” Ivanov said.

he agreement on the BRICS $100 billion currency reserve pool came into force Thursday. The fund was set up by the developing nations group to protect their national currencies from volatility in global markets."The arrangement is important not only because it provides the possibility to quickly obtain additional liquidity, but its very existence has a positive, stabilizing effect on the market. Similar agreements created by other countries (for example, the European Stability Mechanism) continue to be in force and fulfill their functions,” Russia’s BRICS group representative told TASS.

There is a number of technical documents to be signed during the next meeting of the BRICS Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers, the official added.